Building a new bubble

The modern music scene is pushing bands to explore new avenues to market their music independently, writes Patrick Donovan.

As CD sales of big-name acts struggle this year, independent Australian bands are proving that the big labels are not necessarily essential for success.

Australian independent music's pin-up boy, John Butler, laid the foundations for hard-working indie acts by attracting loyal fans through solid touring. He has been rewarded with triple platinum sales for Sunrise Over Sea - the most successful Australian indie album ever.

On the back of Australian Idol exposure, Cosima De Vito funded her own debut single and became the first independent artist to have a single debut at the top of the singles chart. Deborah Conway has encouraged sales by offering to play at the house of anyone who buys 25 copies of her new album. And Adelaide's Hilltop Hoods have led the way for Australian hip-hop groups, becoming the first act on a truly independent label, Obese, to achieve gold sales for an album (35,000 copies).

Fledgling rock band Osterberg have bypassed the record industry to team up with a marketing company, See, and Sydney rock merchandise company Love Police has expanded its business by releasing an album by local band the Cops.

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But it's former chart topper, Regurgitator, that's breaking all the rules with its "Band in a Bubble" stunt. Rather than wallowing in misery after finding its recording deal with Warner had expired, the band came up with the most audacious plan in the history of Australian independent music.

Inspired by illusionist David Blaine, who spent 44 days in a perspex box suspended above the Thames in London, the band members - Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely and Peter Kostic - and two producers and a TV host entered a purpose-built glass recording studio in full view of the public in Federation Square to live and record their fifth album over 21 days. Sponsors, including cable music station Channel V, Optus, Foxtel Digital and video game company X Box, have chipped in about $400,000 to fund the biosphere.

This type of independent funding, Kostic says, is the way of the future."This way a record company has less hold over you," he says. "There are a lot less record companies around... Soon there will probably be one big monster that controls the whole industry and everyone else will be left to fend for themselves... to find ways to exist."

But can a band relying on $400,000 in corporate sponsorship really call itself independent? And how appropriate a project is this for a band that has built its fan base on satirical songs such as I Sucked A Lot of C--- to Get Where I Am?

"We're still working with large corporations, but we own the rights to our music," Ely says. "So we're working with them rather than for them."

In return for the generous sponsorship, the band simply has to use and advertise the products of its sponsors.

"It's not too much of a pain in the arse because when we're in a recording studio we play games anyway, and this way we will be playing them with strangers who come up to the bubble," Ely says. "And we will use Optus phones and cameras to SMS people and send photos to the website. We're kind of helping each other out."

And what about the distraction of the television presenter broadcasting from the bubble each night? Kostic says the presence of the host, Jabba, will be distracting, but it could provide some tension that will fuel their creative fires. After all, great art is often made under duress.

The band is comfortable with its position: not having to borrow a lot of money to record the album means there is no pressure to deliver a best-seller to recoup outlays.

"Quan and I like writing pop music at heart - it's a fun puzzle to write a good pop song, so there will be (pop) elements in there, not necessarily intentionally to sell albums, but because it's a fun thing to do," Ely says.

The band hopes that if a proper album can be recorded in the first two weeks, the third week can be spent working on an avant-garde ambient noise album with contributions from the public. "We'll call it The Third Week," Ely says.

While the Band in a Bubble is an extreme case, independent bands will continue to bypass the big labels in their search for new income avenues and publicity angles. See's James Young says bands need to work on more potential income streams than just through CD sales.

"Bands need a new attack, because it's too hard to survive on CD sales alone," Young says. "If they can get money from merchandise, film and licensing music for TV, they get paid and promoted. Some indie acts such as John Butler and the Cat Empire are flying, but most impoverished labels don't have the influence that the big players have."

The Love Police's Brian Taranto started his label to release music from his favourite bands. "We started a label because we loved the Cops' demos so much, and we could also see the potential of future releases that involved international artists we tour.

"It was more of a case of 'Why not, we can do this ourselves' than some master plan to be independent."

The Band in a Bubble idea, however, will only work for an act with a profile big enough to exposure sponsors products. "Ultimately, we want to record an album in a f up situation, and to challenge ourselves, to keep it exciting for us," Ely says. "We were on the same treadmill for years, recording an album, touring it, and this feels like we're doing our first record again, even though it's our fifth record."

The event producer of Band in a Bubble, Mark Pope, says it is just the tonic for a band such as Regurgitator. "The thing I have noticed about (singer-songwriter) Quan is that the second he gets bored, it becomes boring," Pope says. "Not the music, but the feeling. If you give him some sort of chaotic, creative challenge, it gets the juices flowing."

So far, Regurgitator's publicity stunt has paid off, with blanket coverage on radio, TV and print in Australia, and interest from overseas media such as the BBC. Expect more stunts from independent bands, as the public enjoys a novelty, laps up reality TV, and likes being part of the process.

But ultimately, no amount of bells and whistles can make a dud album sound good.